How To Work With Two POVs

It can be tricky switching between 2 POVs without losing the reader, but this is how I do it in my books:

I usually switch half-way through a scene if I feel it's important to the story to show both POVs. However, I don't often back track over the part of the scene that's just been shown. The scene usually continues from the point of the switch onwards, but in the other person's POV.

This switch can happen at the end of a chapter or it can happen mid-chapter.

This isn't the only way to handle it, but I haven't read many books where the author switches POVs and runs through the exact same scene again.

Hope that helps!

No, don't retell the scene. Not unless you REALLY have to. You can always have the other character reveal later what they were thinking/feeling then if you need to. Generally the rule is to pick the character with most at stake in any given scene and tell it from their point of view. But you can also switch during a scene if you need to do that. People will tell you only to do that once during a scene, though I think it depends on (a) your skill and (b) the length of the scene and (c) the reason for doing so.

Like the others said you don't have to go back and retell the scene, you can enter his thoughts in a different way about their interactions.

I do dual POV and I don't backtrack. If I switched in the middle of the scene I pick up in the same place with the new person's thoughts trying to make the switch seamless.

If you really feel you need to have the MMC's thoughts during those first interactions, read back over what you wrote to see where the scene might be split from her thoughts to his.

Lois McMaster Bujold does this well in Komarr, A Civil Campaign and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance.

She does not re-tell scenes when she switches POV. As a reader, I really appreciate that. I don’t need extra words to tell the same story (I’m looking at you, Anne McCaffrey).

She always anchors the reader right off with who’s head we’re in for every POV switch, especially in A Civil Campaign that has five points of view. “Ivan set one of the used salad plates down on the floor, and plunked the kitten next to it.” or “Mark gently banked the lightflyer…” or “Kareen threw the tub of bug butter.” Sometimes it’s with wording only that character uses. For example, the FMC in Captain Vorpatril's Alliance is the only person who calls the MMC by his first and middle name, so we know immediately we’re in her POV.

When she’s in a person’s POV, she’s continuing the story as it’s important to that POV. Hrmm, how to word this sensibly. Of course, she continues the story but this bit is most important to this POV character. Other POV characters couldn’t tell that part of the story as well from their POV, either because they weren’t there or it didn’t affect them the way the story needs them to be affected.

Frex, all the POV characters are present at the infamous dinner scene in A Civil Campaign; but that scene must be told from Miles’s POV. It just wouldn’t work from Ivan’s or Kareen’s or Mark’s or Ekaterin’s. The emotional impact would dissipate. Ditto with the attic scene. Both Miles and Ekaterin are there; but it wouldn’t work from Miles’s POV as we are needing to know Ekaterin’s emotional journey there. We don’t see Miles writing the letter, but we get a very good sense of what he went through when he wrote it from its contents and Ekaterin’s reactions. (“This is the eleventh draft of this letter. They’ve all started with those three words, even the horrible version in rhyme, so I guess they stay.”) So not only is the character being served by having POV scenes; but the story itself is enhanced by having that part of it told from that character’s POV.

She's an excellent writer and does it very well IMO.

jkosbart said:

So, my question is how do you handle the dual points of view. Do you write the scene from one character's POV in one chapter and then retell part of the scene from the other character's POV in the next chapter?

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No, I don't retell a scene. That doesn't move the story forward. I will give his reactions to what just happened or weave in important details as his scene moves forward. Unless his reason for asking her to dance is vital to the plot, (such as he's a PI doing some kind of covert investigation and needs to talk to her) it can be left alone. It's enough that he was attracted and asked.

I'd recommend looking back over some of those romances you've read and looking specifically for scenes being retold from another POV (meaning the plotline jumps back to a previous time frame and retells the same events) vs. having the information woven in later without the actual timeline shifting back.

If you still show the nonPOV characters reactions, the reader can get an idea of his/her thoughts. Later, when in that POV, you could show their thoughts about the previous scene if you feel it's still necessary.

I agree that switching between two POVs can be tricky if you haven't done it before. I have retold parts of scenes before, but never when the two characters were together. More like what one saw happening from point A and what the other saw from point B and normally the character at point B is seeing more of what the other character didn't see or notice at all.

What about switching to different character POV who had not met each other?

If you’ve got two unrelated people with POV in your story, I’d say the rules are similar. Make sure the reader knows who’s head you’re in right off. Don’t tell anything that character wouldn’t know. Make sure the part of the story you’re telling from that POV is best told from that POV and not another. Don’t repeat things from different POVs, find another way of telling the reader non-POV-character’s reactions to the same scene.

ULTRAGOTHA said:

If you’ve got two unrelated people with POV in your story, I’d say the rules are similar. Make sure the reader knows who’s head you’re in right off. Don’t tell anything that character wouldn’t know. Make sure the part of the story you’re telling from that POV is best told from that POV and not another. Don’t repeat things from different POVs, find another way of telling the reader non-POV-character’s reactions to the same scene.

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You'll be a big help in writing my story. I can certainly see that.

I have a question, I know two povs are beloved by a lot of people:
Is it okay to have one pov be in first person (the MC) and one pov be in 3rd (the guy)?
I've seen it done a few times before but it seems rare?

For the OP - what was it that made you think the guy's POV needed to be included? Whatever that was, spend at least SOME of his POV-time on that.

If you're conveying everything you need to with a single POV, you can't just go back in and insert a second POV without a lot of repetition. So you need to have things going on that justify the second POV. What's going on in the hero's life? Maybe in the first draft he told the heroine about these issues, or maybe they were never covered at all. So when you write in his POV, you have the chance to show them instead of telling them. Or, if you haven't figured out what's going on with him, you have the chance to figure it out.

The second POV shouldn't be filler. It should introduce new depth to the character and the story.

Side note: something I've been playing with lately and really enjoying is LONG stretches in a single character POV. (This has been in m/m romance, where the rules aren't quite as rigid as m/f romance. I don't know if it would work with m/f). I'll have, say, the first third of the book from POV1, giving me a chance to really get into his head and also to establish a bit of mystery about the second character. Then I'll switch to POV2 for the next third of the book and really crawl into HIS head. Then the last third, after we know both characters really well, I'll switch back and forth between scenes and chapters.

I really like that system. But as I said, I'm not sure if it would be allowed in m/f? Anyone know?

BookmarkUnicorn - I think it is rare. I think I'd find it a bit jarring, but it might depend on how long each of the POV sections was and how well each POV was done. Is there a reason you want to do it that way? I'd worry that it might seem a bit distancing from the male character - I don't think 3rd is distancing in general, but I think it might feel that way in close contrast with 1st.

BookmarkUnicorn said:

I have a question, I know two povs are beloved by a lot of people:
Is it okay to have one pov be in first person (the MC) and one pov be in 3rd (the guy)?
I've seen it done a few times before but it seems rare?

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I've never seen that done in the romance genre, and I think doing something that unusual might work against you. Of course, you can definitely try, and I've read books where it's done (not romances though). Joshilyn Jackson does this both in Someone Else's Love Story (FMC in first person, MMC in third person), and A Grown-up Kind of Pretty (IIRC, two women in first person, one in third). I'm pretty sure I saw this in a Jennifer Weiner book too. I think it was Little Earthquakes?

Captcha said:

Side note: something I've been playing with lately and really enjoying is LONG stretches in a single character POV. (This has been in m/m romance, where the rules aren't quite as rigid as m/f romance. I don't know if it would work with m/f). I'll have, say, the first third of the book from POV1, giving me a chance to really get into his head and also to establish a bit of mystery about the second character. Then I'll switch to POV2 for the next third of the book and really crawl into HIS head. Then the last third, after we know both characters really well, I'll switch back and forth between scenes and chapters.

I really like that system. But as I said, I'm not sure if it would be allowed in m/f? Anyone know?

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I recently read an m/f romance in which the first half was from the MMC's POV and the second half was from the FMC's POV, both in first person. I thought it worked well there, but the book in general was not quite my thing. It was self-published. Fairly successful, based on the large number of Goodreads reviews.

Some m/f romances split the POVs closer to 30/70 than 50/50, and then you'll get rather long stretches without the hero's POV. But it would be usual to be without his POV for 1/3 of the book. Cannot think of any examples but the one above.

The tone of my story is more romantic light supernatural comedy than anything, and the guy is hiding things I want the reader to be in on. I guess I can make it two 3rd person povs or two first person povs without losing anything though. I just wanted to give the effect the MC was more open than the guy with her thoughts. Although, I guess a more thoughtful 3rd for her and a more limited 3rd for him would do the same thing (since first person for a guy seems to be disliked).

This is all really good stuff. I have a tendency to 'head-hop' which I understand is a bad thing. I'm trying to figure out how to do that while still getting in the important impact of a scene for both characters.

I've seen only a few books written from 2 POV where both are first person, and they don't re-tell the whole scene so much as tell the second person's reactions. For example, if the scene was one where the hero was pulling some macho alpha male BS, the next chapter might start with the heroine fuming about his high-handed behavior and calling a girlfriend to commiserate. I'm finding that third parties/friends can be very useful for getting those reactions out where the reader can see them. And, as an added bonus, conversation is more interesting to read than just head-speak.

BookmarkUnicorn said:

The tone of my story is more romantic light supernatural comedy than anything, and the guy is hiding things I want the reader to be in on. I guess I can make it two 3rd person povs or two first person povs without losing anything though. I just wanted to give the effect the MC was more open than the guy with her thoughts. Although, I guess a more thoughtful 3rd for her and a more limited 3rd for him would do the same thing (since first person for a guy seems to be disliked).

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Thing is, many people will notice a jump between third and first. It is not really a subtle change. And I don't mean notice the difference between characters, but become aware of the writing technique, which could draw the reader out of the story. Because of that, and because it's so uncommon, it's a rather risky strategy, IMHO. I suspect the difference between characters can be shown in third person limited.

As for readers not liking first person for a guy, I think in m/f romance it's a combination of:

1) m/f romances (almost?) always have the POV of the woman. I cannot think of one that doesn't--not one that is shelved as a romance. I can think of books from only the MMC's POV that were essentially romances, but they were shelved as general fiction. Having the woman's POV seems to be an expectation when one reads an m/f romance.

2) Multiple first person POVs is rather unusual, and seems to be disliked by many people. Since the switch is more jarring than in third person limited, you don't usually want to switch as often. I have only read once romance that uses multiple first person POVs, as mentioned above: Love and Lists by Tara Sevic. I believe Caprice Crane's Stupid and Contagious uses multiple first person POVs too...I think it was sold as chick lit, but the romance is a big part of it.